Waw everyone, thx for those amazing reviews! And so soon! As promised,
here's chapter 17. Hope you'll enjoy it.
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The blue sky was filled with little white clouds, every now and then making the sun disappear. Maria lay in a meadow, gazing up into the sky. To her knowing, there were no houses, cars or any other signs of the world she lived in. Besides 2 other persons, she was alone in this enormous field. Although she couldn't see them well, because they were both sitting out of her sight, she knew the 2 were very dear to her. It were her parents. Everything was so nice, things like being back with her parents and laying there in a world without worries. It seemed like they had never left. Maria, studying the shapes of the clouds, felt so comfortable. There was a wonderful atmosphere around them. Further in the sky, dark clouds started to come up, and quickly they had come over Maria and her parents. The first raindrops started to fall, while the wind became heavier. A sharp light filled the dark sky. Maria got up, her arms above her to fend the rain off. She turned around to the direction where her parents were and found that no one was there. She didn't even bother anymore to hold her arms up, because the rain was pouring down now. In a minute she was soaked, but that didn't keep her from searching around and trying to find her parents. The meadow was enormous and the nearest trees were at least 5 miles away from her. Maria panicked when she couldn't find them anywhere. Tears started to come up. 'I've lost them again.' She made one last attempt to find them, but wherever she looked, emptiness was all she could find.
She woke up and sat on her bed. Breathing heavily, a tear rolled down on her face. She could feel her heart beating into her throat. 'A nightmare. All had been a nightmare.' Knowing that she couldn't sleep anymore, she had an urge to go somewhere, away from the house, where she could think clearly. Some place she could relax again. Quietly she got out of bed. Wiping the tears of her face, she walked over to the window and opened it. Luckily it had stopped raining hours ago. Most things would be dry by now. She looked up to the sky. The stars were shining brightly, as was a half- moon, not yet high in the sky. The outside air floated inside and was rather pleasant, as it was not too cold. She stepped back, put on a dress and took a thin jacket for outside. Then as silent as she could, she opened the door, peeped with only her head outside the door to check if someone was there, and when she saw the coast was clear, she proceeded to go outside.
The captain, who came from the nursery, had hid himself just in time in the room next to Maria's bedroom. Luckily for him, the door had been open, so he could just walk in without being noticed. The rest of the hallway was very dark, and Georg could see Maria slip away as he carefully peeked into the hall. It was 11:30 PM and Maria was still up. Very unusual. Especially because she was dressed instead of wearing a nightgown.
Once Maria came to the main hallway, she glanced downstairs. There too was no one. As she looked at the door, she wondered how she would get back in without having a key or anything. 'I can always come back in the morning and say I went for an early walk.' And that even wasn't a complete lie. She went for a walk, it just would take her all night. Pretty determined she was going through with all of this, she tried to close the door behind her without making any sounds. At last outside, she started running to arrive faster at her own spot, since it was a few hours away from the house.
Georg couldn't help himself. 'Where's is she going at this hour? Perhaps I should follow her, make sure she'll be alright. You never know if she'll get into any trouble ...' Maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, he was sure she had perfectly good reasons to run off like this. Still, he couldn't keep himself out of this. He waited a minute or 2 to make sure she was far enough outside so as not to spot him coming after her. For the second time, the door got closed quietly.
After an hour of running alternated with calm walks, she was almost there. She guessed it would only be a quarter walking from where she was now. The captain, still following her, had an idea where she was going. Sometimes he really had to run to not loose her out of his sight. And to his disappointment, she started to run that last part too. It didn't matter actually, cause he knew where he had to be. Perhaps it was the best thing to let her go while Georg himself walked on his own pace. He sure was glad he hadn't one of his suits on. The trousers and thin sweater he was wearing were perfect for what he had to do in a while.
Eventually he got there. He looked up to the tree house and saw that the trapdoor was opened. His mind was telling him this climb wasn't a wise thing to do in the dark. Yet he wanted to know the reason why Maria had come here in the middle of the night. Something had to be wrong. So carefully he started climbing.
Enough light of the moon fell in through a window and Maria was looking closely at the picture of her and her parents. A tear fell back down her face. This time she didn't wipe them off. 'Let them come, I don't care!' Suddenly she heard a sound behind her back. A bit frightened she turned her head. To her surprise the captain was crawling through the trapdoor.
"Captain?" She said as she wiped of her tears. "What are you doing here?"
When he was finally all safely inside, he got closer to Maria.
"I'm so sorry I followed you Maria. But I saw you leaving in the middle of the night, that's a bit suspicious if you ask me."
The moonlight shined now on her face, making the trails of her tears glitter a bit.
"Maria, why are you crying?" He asked her in a very gentle way.
"I suppose it wasn't the best thing to do ..." Her voice grew softer. "I had a nightmare, about my parents." She said as she held the picture tightly in her hands. "I just had to come here, like I always used to do."
Again, she began to cry. Georg knew perfectly how she felt. He too had had those dreams when Agathe had died. Those nightmares practically stopped a year ago. Sure, he still had them, but they weren't as bad anymore as before. Automatically he embraced her, letting her cry out on his shoulder.
"Ssh, it's alright."
He caressed her back reassuringly. 'Oh how I wish I had someone who was there for me when I needed them ... There was someone, 7 actually, but you-- you ...' He held Maria more tightly when he thought he had his own children who could've helped him, but he hadn't allowed them. 'What a fool I was!'
It was the second time that Georg was comforting Maria. It felt good to have someone close to her, Maria just needed this.
"You know ..." The captain started, while Maria was softly crying on his shoulder and her arms were securely in his neck. "I had the same thing when Agathe died."
Georg's hand moved to her neck. With a trembling voice, Maria asked him:
"What did you do?"
Still in their embrace, the captain started talking in the gentle, friendly tone as before.
"I sat in my study, depressed for days. I neglected my children and life became terrible. And that was the wrong thing to do! Instead of neglecting them, I should've let them be there for me, as I am to you ... When you hold all that anger and sadness to yourself, you're going to do stupid things. Believe me, I know ... So please, Maria, next time when this happens, come to me. I'm always there for you. Even if it's in the middle of the night. Just walk into my room, and if necessary, we'll even walk back here, but always come to me. Ok?"
"Ok. I promise."
Maria wasn't crying anymore, though her face was still wet of all the tears.
"Do you really mean that?" She asked him after having given it some thoughts.
"Yes of course."
"Even that coming here part?"
He parted from their embrace to look deeply into her eyes.
"Even that, never forget it."
"I won't. Thank you."
She nearly whispered. Then she looked up at the wooden plate as roof.
"Sir, could you give me a hand?"
"Sure, with what?"
She stood up, but had to duck, so she wouldn't hit that plate.
"With this plate. If we pull it off, we can look at the stars through the branches."
With that Georg stood up too, and helped her to shove it aside, with eventually turning it to pull it in and to let it lean against one of the walls of the tree house. As Georg was amazed by the sight above him, he understood why Maria would come here in the middle of the night. He followed Maria's example and laid down on the floor. Then he pulled Maria closer, so she was leaning with her head on his arm to his shoulder.
"It's beautiful!"
"Yes. I just love to look at the stars. Don't you?"
"Now I do ..."
"My dad knew I was a star-person, so he had used this as a roof."
"Star-person?"
"Yes, you know, always looking at the stars and things like that."
The dark blue sky was filled with little white lights. Seemed magical.
"You know the other day, when I said I came here lot with my dad. Well I sorta got this sneaking away at night to come here from him, the only thing different, it wasn't really sneaking away."
"Oh? Tell me."
"Occasionally we came here at night. My mum always packed us 2 blankets, and 2 pillows. When we got here, we pulled the roof of like now, and stared for hours at those shiny stars. Then I would just fall asleep in his arms. Sometimes my mum would come too, but that wasn't very often. One night when we lay here, with the full moon high in the sky, some wild geese flew by. It was the most prettiest sight I've ever seen ... well, at least one of them."
She said as a faint smile appeared.
"If I'm not mistaken, you mentioned that in your song, didn't you?"
"Yes ..."
She paused for a minute, astonished he knew that.
"How does it go again?"
You could hear in his voice that he was doing his best to remember the tune of the song. Silently Maria began to sing it.
Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens
Georg remembered it now. He too started singing. They kept it slow and rather quiet, a very kind of relaxing tone.
Bright copper kettles
And warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages
Tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things
Cream coloured ponies
And crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells
And schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly
With the moon on their wings
Georg lovingly squeezed her hand during the wild geese line.
These are a few of my favourite things
Maria stopped singing. As she was listening to Georg, it overwhelmed her that she was laying into his arms. Yet she didn't move. It gave her a delightful feeling, especially with Georg's gentle voice as he was singing to her in a way. She was completely spell-bound.
Girls in white dresses
With blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay
On my nose and eyelashes
Silver-white winters
That melt into springs
These are a few of my favourite things.
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel
So bad
"I must say, captain, you've really amazed me. Since when do you know this song?"
"Since little Gretl and Marta had taught me it."
"Oh I see ..."
Her voice sounded a bit weary. As her head was leaning a bit on his chest, she could hear the soothing sound of his heartbeat. Georg was still looking above him. He could stare at the sky forever! Suddenly his eye caught a falling star. Quickly he pointed at it.
"Look Maria! A shooting--"
He looked down at Maria's head and found out she was already soundly asleep.
"--star ..."
As he was sure she couldn't hear him anymore, he whispered:
"Sweet dreams, my darling."
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I'm busy with chapter 18, if everything goes well I'll have it finished tonight, otherwise I'm hoping to have it finished this by Saturday since I won't be here tomorrow. Again, I'll post it after at least 6 reviews.
XxAmanda/SarahxX
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The blue sky was filled with little white clouds, every now and then making the sun disappear. Maria lay in a meadow, gazing up into the sky. To her knowing, there were no houses, cars or any other signs of the world she lived in. Besides 2 other persons, she was alone in this enormous field. Although she couldn't see them well, because they were both sitting out of her sight, she knew the 2 were very dear to her. It were her parents. Everything was so nice, things like being back with her parents and laying there in a world without worries. It seemed like they had never left. Maria, studying the shapes of the clouds, felt so comfortable. There was a wonderful atmosphere around them. Further in the sky, dark clouds started to come up, and quickly they had come over Maria and her parents. The first raindrops started to fall, while the wind became heavier. A sharp light filled the dark sky. Maria got up, her arms above her to fend the rain off. She turned around to the direction where her parents were and found that no one was there. She didn't even bother anymore to hold her arms up, because the rain was pouring down now. In a minute she was soaked, but that didn't keep her from searching around and trying to find her parents. The meadow was enormous and the nearest trees were at least 5 miles away from her. Maria panicked when she couldn't find them anywhere. Tears started to come up. 'I've lost them again.' She made one last attempt to find them, but wherever she looked, emptiness was all she could find.
She woke up and sat on her bed. Breathing heavily, a tear rolled down on her face. She could feel her heart beating into her throat. 'A nightmare. All had been a nightmare.' Knowing that she couldn't sleep anymore, she had an urge to go somewhere, away from the house, where she could think clearly. Some place she could relax again. Quietly she got out of bed. Wiping the tears of her face, she walked over to the window and opened it. Luckily it had stopped raining hours ago. Most things would be dry by now. She looked up to the sky. The stars were shining brightly, as was a half- moon, not yet high in the sky. The outside air floated inside and was rather pleasant, as it was not too cold. She stepped back, put on a dress and took a thin jacket for outside. Then as silent as she could, she opened the door, peeped with only her head outside the door to check if someone was there, and when she saw the coast was clear, she proceeded to go outside.
The captain, who came from the nursery, had hid himself just in time in the room next to Maria's bedroom. Luckily for him, the door had been open, so he could just walk in without being noticed. The rest of the hallway was very dark, and Georg could see Maria slip away as he carefully peeked into the hall. It was 11:30 PM and Maria was still up. Very unusual. Especially because she was dressed instead of wearing a nightgown.
Once Maria came to the main hallway, she glanced downstairs. There too was no one. As she looked at the door, she wondered how she would get back in without having a key or anything. 'I can always come back in the morning and say I went for an early walk.' And that even wasn't a complete lie. She went for a walk, it just would take her all night. Pretty determined she was going through with all of this, she tried to close the door behind her without making any sounds. At last outside, she started running to arrive faster at her own spot, since it was a few hours away from the house.
Georg couldn't help himself. 'Where's is she going at this hour? Perhaps I should follow her, make sure she'll be alright. You never know if she'll get into any trouble ...' Maybe it wasn't the best thing to do, he was sure she had perfectly good reasons to run off like this. Still, he couldn't keep himself out of this. He waited a minute or 2 to make sure she was far enough outside so as not to spot him coming after her. For the second time, the door got closed quietly.
After an hour of running alternated with calm walks, she was almost there. She guessed it would only be a quarter walking from where she was now. The captain, still following her, had an idea where she was going. Sometimes he really had to run to not loose her out of his sight. And to his disappointment, she started to run that last part too. It didn't matter actually, cause he knew where he had to be. Perhaps it was the best thing to let her go while Georg himself walked on his own pace. He sure was glad he hadn't one of his suits on. The trousers and thin sweater he was wearing were perfect for what he had to do in a while.
Eventually he got there. He looked up to the tree house and saw that the trapdoor was opened. His mind was telling him this climb wasn't a wise thing to do in the dark. Yet he wanted to know the reason why Maria had come here in the middle of the night. Something had to be wrong. So carefully he started climbing.
Enough light of the moon fell in through a window and Maria was looking closely at the picture of her and her parents. A tear fell back down her face. This time she didn't wipe them off. 'Let them come, I don't care!' Suddenly she heard a sound behind her back. A bit frightened she turned her head. To her surprise the captain was crawling through the trapdoor.
"Captain?" She said as she wiped of her tears. "What are you doing here?"
When he was finally all safely inside, he got closer to Maria.
"I'm so sorry I followed you Maria. But I saw you leaving in the middle of the night, that's a bit suspicious if you ask me."
The moonlight shined now on her face, making the trails of her tears glitter a bit.
"Maria, why are you crying?" He asked her in a very gentle way.
"I suppose it wasn't the best thing to do ..." Her voice grew softer. "I had a nightmare, about my parents." She said as she held the picture tightly in her hands. "I just had to come here, like I always used to do."
Again, she began to cry. Georg knew perfectly how she felt. He too had had those dreams when Agathe had died. Those nightmares practically stopped a year ago. Sure, he still had them, but they weren't as bad anymore as before. Automatically he embraced her, letting her cry out on his shoulder.
"Ssh, it's alright."
He caressed her back reassuringly. 'Oh how I wish I had someone who was there for me when I needed them ... There was someone, 7 actually, but you-- you ...' He held Maria more tightly when he thought he had his own children who could've helped him, but he hadn't allowed them. 'What a fool I was!'
It was the second time that Georg was comforting Maria. It felt good to have someone close to her, Maria just needed this.
"You know ..." The captain started, while Maria was softly crying on his shoulder and her arms were securely in his neck. "I had the same thing when Agathe died."
Georg's hand moved to her neck. With a trembling voice, Maria asked him:
"What did you do?"
Still in their embrace, the captain started talking in the gentle, friendly tone as before.
"I sat in my study, depressed for days. I neglected my children and life became terrible. And that was the wrong thing to do! Instead of neglecting them, I should've let them be there for me, as I am to you ... When you hold all that anger and sadness to yourself, you're going to do stupid things. Believe me, I know ... So please, Maria, next time when this happens, come to me. I'm always there for you. Even if it's in the middle of the night. Just walk into my room, and if necessary, we'll even walk back here, but always come to me. Ok?"
"Ok. I promise."
Maria wasn't crying anymore, though her face was still wet of all the tears.
"Do you really mean that?" She asked him after having given it some thoughts.
"Yes of course."
"Even that coming here part?"
He parted from their embrace to look deeply into her eyes.
"Even that, never forget it."
"I won't. Thank you."
She nearly whispered. Then she looked up at the wooden plate as roof.
"Sir, could you give me a hand?"
"Sure, with what?"
She stood up, but had to duck, so she wouldn't hit that plate.
"With this plate. If we pull it off, we can look at the stars through the branches."
With that Georg stood up too, and helped her to shove it aside, with eventually turning it to pull it in and to let it lean against one of the walls of the tree house. As Georg was amazed by the sight above him, he understood why Maria would come here in the middle of the night. He followed Maria's example and laid down on the floor. Then he pulled Maria closer, so she was leaning with her head on his arm to his shoulder.
"It's beautiful!"
"Yes. I just love to look at the stars. Don't you?"
"Now I do ..."
"My dad knew I was a star-person, so he had used this as a roof."
"Star-person?"
"Yes, you know, always looking at the stars and things like that."
The dark blue sky was filled with little white lights. Seemed magical.
"You know the other day, when I said I came here lot with my dad. Well I sorta got this sneaking away at night to come here from him, the only thing different, it wasn't really sneaking away."
"Oh? Tell me."
"Occasionally we came here at night. My mum always packed us 2 blankets, and 2 pillows. When we got here, we pulled the roof of like now, and stared for hours at those shiny stars. Then I would just fall asleep in his arms. Sometimes my mum would come too, but that wasn't very often. One night when we lay here, with the full moon high in the sky, some wild geese flew by. It was the most prettiest sight I've ever seen ... well, at least one of them."
She said as a faint smile appeared.
"If I'm not mistaken, you mentioned that in your song, didn't you?"
"Yes ..."
She paused for a minute, astonished he knew that.
"How does it go again?"
You could hear in his voice that he was doing his best to remember the tune of the song. Silently Maria began to sing it.
Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens
Georg remembered it now. He too started singing. They kept it slow and rather quiet, a very kind of relaxing tone.
Bright copper kettles
And warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages
Tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things
Cream coloured ponies
And crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells
And schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly
With the moon on their wings
Georg lovingly squeezed her hand during the wild geese line.
These are a few of my favourite things
Maria stopped singing. As she was listening to Georg, it overwhelmed her that she was laying into his arms. Yet she didn't move. It gave her a delightful feeling, especially with Georg's gentle voice as he was singing to her in a way. She was completely spell-bound.
Girls in white dresses
With blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay
On my nose and eyelashes
Silver-white winters
That melt into springs
These are a few of my favourite things.
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel
So bad
"I must say, captain, you've really amazed me. Since when do you know this song?"
"Since little Gretl and Marta had taught me it."
"Oh I see ..."
Her voice sounded a bit weary. As her head was leaning a bit on his chest, she could hear the soothing sound of his heartbeat. Georg was still looking above him. He could stare at the sky forever! Suddenly his eye caught a falling star. Quickly he pointed at it.
"Look Maria! A shooting--"
He looked down at Maria's head and found out she was already soundly asleep.
"--star ..."
As he was sure she couldn't hear him anymore, he whispered:
"Sweet dreams, my darling."
----- ----- -----
I'm busy with chapter 18, if everything goes well I'll have it finished tonight, otherwise I'm hoping to have it finished this by Saturday since I won't be here tomorrow. Again, I'll post it after at least 6 reviews.
XxAmanda/SarahxX